The Sky is Falling? (or melting) - Part 1

The topic that I'm sure is on everyone's mind right now is of course global warming. Or as the powers that be seem to prefer to refer to it now, climate change. Or maybe not, but it is what I am going to write about today, and probably for a few days.

The issue, is I don't know much about it. I mean, I know all the bumper sticker wisdom and that the world is ending according to "99%" of scientists and all, but my house isn't on the verge of being flooded, and my pet polar bear is quite healthy, so it hasn't been a major day-to-day concern for me like it has for all of you.

The US government as well as many other national governments and the EU/UN crowd seem to think it is important though so I am going to investigate until I feel comfortable enough to have a strong opinion on the topic and I'm going to make you all watch. This ties in to this post about being intentional and consistent in my opinions. Right now I am certainly inconsistent, and it is possible I am incorrect. It is why I do not express a strong opinion on the topic. At the end of this I want to be able to be very opinionated about the topic. :P

Now, you can probably tell from the title and my general tone that I am not starting from a perfectly unbiased position. I have lived in the mid-west most of my life and the general attitude in that area is that global warming is a complete crock and weather is weather and is always changing so get over it already.

So, I am not starting from the ideal place of complete intellectual impartiality. However, I am wanting to give both sides a genuine shot at convincing me they are correct. Despite the levity of my tone, if global warming is in fact a real concern and the consequences are as bad as is suggested I do need to take it seriously and do what I can to help prevent it.

However, if it is not a concern there are a whole pile of other issues that present themselves.

To get the whole thing started I have made a list of questions to help guide my search for truth and to hopefully reign in my bias's so that I can do a better job evaluating the actual questions and not on rabbit trails.

I will add questions to the list if/when I think of new ones.

1. Is the earth warming?
1. How do we measure it?
2. What does the data say?
3. Where does the data come from?
4. How is the data processed?
5. Who collects/processes/interprets the data?
2. If the earth is warming:
1. What is causing it, and how do we know?
2. What is the timeline of the warming trend? (past/future)
3. How fast is it warming now?
3. Is it a bad thing?
1. What is the ideal temperature?
2. What are the affects?